transamws6_97

iTrader: (5)

Ok so my 3.42 broke about 40k miles ago and I got richmond 4.10s put into my car. They were actually less noisy than the 3.42s were that I broke. When I did my tunnel mount torque arm my gears got louder but that is to be expected. It used to be pretty bearable and wasn't too loud unless you were going 65-75 anything below or above was not really that vocal. Well now everything is loud. When I'm going 80 it is now loud and when im going 20 it is pretty vocal too...its just ridiculous. I can hear it on both accel and decel. It overshadows my true dual setup which is pretty loud. What can be done? Will I just need a new set of gears and have it completely redone?

Bob@BruteSpeed

iTrader: (16)

I grabbed the info below from my website: You could rebuild the rear and end up with all the noise again as the housing can tweak pretty easily. Bob

10 Bolt, 12 Bolt and 9 inch Information
The factory 10 bolt that came in these cars has a very small 7.5" gear. A variation of this rear was used back in the '70's in the Chevy Monza, then in the Chevy S-10. GM had to of known they would have warranty claims when they decided to use this rear in the 3rd and 4th gen f body's, apparently the cost of creating a stronger rear was higher than what they thought the warranty cost would be. This has been a real plus for the aftermarket, as a bone stock LS1 F Body with a manual transmission can break one of these 10 bolt rears! Many people have tried to beef these 10 bolt rears, spending a lot of money in the process. What they normally end up with is a rear that still breaks, as everything on these rears is too small.
The 12 bolt rears that are available for these cars is a step in the right direction. The 12 bolts are well known for being a stout rear that was a factory option back in the day in many performance cars. You can have a 12 bolt in an early Chevelle, Nova, Camaro, etc, and beat the snot out of it and not hurt anything. Put a 12 bolt into a late model f body that uses a torque arm, make a couple 4000 to 5000 rpm launches at the dragstrip, and I can just about guarantee you'll have a lot more gear noise on the way home. The torque arm seems to distort the housing on the 12 bolts, and it seems to happen to all the brands of 12 bolt rears. This does not happen to the 9 inch rears, and there is no price difference between the 12 bolt and nine inch rears. As the horsepower in our engines keep escalating, most people these days go straight to the nine inch rear. The 9-inch has an internal rear-pinion support that also supports the gear end of the pinion to limit gear deflection under high torque loads. This seems to be the major reason why the 9 inch doesn't start whining after high rpm clutch dumps, when the 12 bolt will pick up noise. The 9-inch locates its pinion gear lower on the ring gear to improve tooth contact, better the 12 bolt does. The 9-inch also has a 0.125-inch larger ring-gear diameter and internal pinion support than the 12 bolt.

transamws6_97

iTrader: (5)

well if I am going to upgrade to a new rear end I would do s60